“Let us make mankind in our image” (Gensis 1:26). God’s intent was that being made in his image, mankind would not only live in close communion with him, but that we would reflect God’s love and care in our dealings with each other. The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Commandments are all about different aspects of healthy human relationships: respect and obedience for those God places in a position of authority; valuing and defending the life and well-being of others; expressing relational bonds, particularly marriage, in appropriate ways. God wants us to treasure our fellow man. Yet, in virtually every type of relationship that can exist—parent and child, husband and wife, employer and employee, neighbor and neighbor—we invent new ways to hurt one other.

Breaking these Commandments shows how we feel about our fellow man. More, that disobedience speaks volumes about how we really feel about our God. Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. . . Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not due for me” (Matthew 25:40,45). This week we see that Jesus is the only one who lives up to God’s expectations of how we should treat each other. So, in Lenten faith, we cry out to him, “Lord, have mercy for treating others like trash, not treasure!”

Love can cause harm. Consider the wife whose husband wants little to do with church. She loves him and does not want to upset him. So, when her husband wants her and the children to stay home Sunday morning, she complies without protest. That wife’s love for her husband hurts him, her children, and herself. Or consider the father who loves his child so much that he gives the child everything that child asks for. That father’s love is toxic. It is shaping that child to be a selfish, entitled adult.

In our families, it is not enough that there is love. We need to rightly love, to love in a way that leads to blessings for those we claim to love. This illustrates the need for followership. In Jesus we see perfect, self-sacrificial love. Jesus loves us as we are. He also loved us too much to leave us as we are. So, in love he gave his life up so that we might be holy and blameless. His love for us shapes the way we love our spouse, our children, our parents. Today we see that followers of Christ know how to love their family.

This Midweek Advent Sermon Series tells the stories of the clothing of the King. Stories that describe a wardrobe at once splendid and sin-stained, with fabrics that reveal who we are and cover us all the same. The clothing of the King is tattered and worn and glorious in its incorruptibility. It isn’t ours, yet He gives it to us freely.

Our God establishes earthly governments.